Kenyan technopreneur and philanthropist Nelly Chemboi was awarded the CNN hero of the year award Sunday, December 11, 2022.
The event which took place at the American Museum of Natural History saw Chemboi emerge number one ahead of 10 other nominees.
When CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced Chemboi as the winner she could not hold back her excitement as she broke out into tears.
She went on to express her gratitude and further stated that the prize money would towards bridging the technilogical gaps in rural Africa.
“Every year, people are graduating into the corporate world without ever using a computer. This forces them to go back to the village with their education. We need to rewrite what it means to grow up in rural Africa because people can work glamorous jobs and still work in your community,” Chemboi stated.
As a result, the 29-year-old will receive $100,000 to help with her work, a $10,000 cash award for attending the gala, as well as additional funding, training and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation.
In 2019, Nelly Chemboi quit her software engineering job on Chicago to pursue her passion.
She is now the co-founder and CEO of Technologically Literate Africa (TechLit Africa), an organization that recycles old computers to create tech labs in school.
“The world is your oyster when you are educated. By bringing the resources, bringing the skills we are opening the world to them,” she added.
